Flight of the Condor

Up at 6 a.m. for a traveller´s breakfast and into the minivan by 6.30. We drove from Chivay along a dirt road following the Colca Canyon. It was a cold, bumpy and dusty ride. We were both feeling the altitude with a bit of a headache and a bit of dizziness, but Kel was feeling f***ing awful. Our first stop was at a small village where there is a church. I didn´t listen to the guide mumble his spiel about the church as I was too busy admiring a beautiful Black Eagle that was on a perch there. And Kel didn´t listen either because she was busy petting a cute border collie type dog. The bird is a pet and is friendly so you could give it a little touch. There were also more friendly (but dusty) dogs which Kel and I seem to take more interest in at most stops. And of course at any tourist stop are the stalls of people selling their wares.

Our next stop was along the side of the road that looks down into the canyon itself. At 3191m, the Cañon del Colca is either the world´s deepest or second deepest canyon, depending on who you ask (the other is nearby Cañon del Cotahuasi). Lining the walls of the canyon are Incan and pre-Incan terraces used for farming. The majority of them are still used today, where locals grow mainly potatoes, garlic, onions, beans, maize, and quinua, a Peruvian grain. Each separate farm plot is set off from its neighbouring plot by low walls made of stacked stones. The Incans used this stone because it reflects the heat of the sun onto the crops throughout the day. The canyon is massive, and the amount of terracing covering the mountain sides is amazing, going on for kilometers up the canyon and reaching all the way from the bottom to about 3/4 of the way to the top. It is quite amazing to see these terraces making their way up really steep valley walls. The scale of the canyon is amazing, when looking down and seeing people in their fields appear as little specks it gives it some proportion. A few more stops along the way to look at the canyon and see some ancient graves perched on a vertical cliff overlooking the valley and we arrived at Cruz del Condor. Our crap guide mumbled something about the condors and then proceeded to talk everyone out of doing the walk along the top of the canyon to the lookout saying it is very cold and windy. When booking the trip we were told we would do at least an hour of hiking each day. We all got out the van and did the 20 min walk to the lookout. The canyon here is extremely steep and deep. The views along the canyon and of the surrounding mountains are incredible. Kel and I found a perch at a lookout and could see a condor sitting on a rock near one of the other lookouts. We could see that he bird was about half the height of a person. When it spread its wings and flew off it was huge. They have a wingspan of up to 10 feet. We had to wait a little while until more birds appeared but in the end there were up to 10 birds flying around the area. Watching them is amazing; they are just so huge but incredibly graceful, rarely having to beat their wings in the rising thermals. At one stage we had a hummingbird humming around in front of us which made it even more surreal. We were watching the world´s largest bird that doesn´t beat its wings and then seeing one of the world´s smallest birds that beats its wings the fastest. We sat and watched the condors for about an hour and a half. The scenery was spectacular and so was the experience of seeing the condors.

Back in the bus we made our way back to Chivay with the standard photo stops that happened to be next to a few stalls of souveniers. Lunch in Chivay was a few cheap sandwiches (Kel had avocado and tomato sandwiches, but picked out all of the avocado and tomatoes as she couldn´t stomach them) in the plaza but unfortunately the kids weren't around to entertain us (but fortunately they were-hopefully-at school). At about 1pm we all piled in the van to make the 6 hour trip back to Arequipa. The trip was pretty quiet and most people had a bit of a nap. Same dusty, bumpy road.

It was nice to get back to the Regis hotel and their hot showers. We bought some bus tickets from a travel agency, tried to exchange some books but didn't want to get ripped off and found a reasonably cheap mexican restaurant for dinner. We had some chicken tacos which were great and got us excited about the food in Mexico. Still feeling the altitude we made our way back to the hotel and into bed.